MattA75's Full Review: Every Six Seconds by Saliva
As I sat down to write this Epinion, the cheesy titles came to me, one after one: "Saliva: Nothing to Spit Up Over." "Saliva: They Won't Make Your Mouth Water." and so on and so forth. I figured I would spare the intelligent people on this site the ultimate cheese of making a review title like that. Besides, I'm sure that pretty soon other people will take those titles for their own reviews.
Most likely you've heard Saliva and don't even know it. That was the case with me until about 3 weeks ago. They seem to be one of those bands where the radio will play their single and then, no matter how many times you hear the song, they won't ever tell you the name of the song or who it's by.
This time, that song is Your Disease, a song that takes 80s glam pop metal and rams it head on with venomous 90s rap rock. The result is pretty satisfying, and since I wouldn't consider Saliva a "rap-rock" act if I were to try to label them (hard rock with other influences would be right), the sad thing is is that they do rap-rock better than half of those god awful bands (read: Papa Roach, the worst band on the planet Linkin Park, etc) that rock radio seems to be having orgasms over.
Your Disease is also refreshing because of the simple fact that it ROCKS. The guitar melody on the bridge is excellent stuff, and lead singer Josey Scott sings with both a bit of desperation and hope. It really reminds me heavily of Skid Row and even a bit of the hardest stuff that Bon Jovi did. The pop element is there in this song.
As for the second song I positively love, it's the song I expected the least from. When I saw the title of Click, Click, Boom, I thought of it as an afterthought, a throwaway. The vocal delivery is reminiscent of Sevendust (and that's who this band reminds me a lot of at times, too bad they don't do it nearly enough) and the line "My mom and dad weren’t perfect, but still you don’t hear no cryin a*s b*tchin from me, like there seems to be on everybody’s CD" (yeah I realize kristina has this line in her review, but it is SUCH a perfect line) might be the best line written in response to all the pretentious anger out there in music today.
However, the rest of the CD is a complete disappointment right from the start. I've heard the guitar riff used on Superstar at least 20 times before on other band's records. And the drumming is atrocious. When a drummer uses that many snare fills it's a dead give away he can't keep time very well at all. Only the Offspring's drummer is worse than this guy, Paul Crosby. No wonder the drums are so low in the mix, especially the bass drum.
Musta Been Wrong sounds an awful lot like Superstar, and sure enough, the lead guitar riff in the opening is barely differentiated. On the bright side, Scott shows off his voice early on in the song, only to pull his boring screaming fit on the chorus. I think I feel for Scott here. It feels like he doesn't want to scream, but does it maybe only because he's expected too. He does have a gorgeous voice when he uses it, and with a little seasoning, he might be able to use it like ex Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell does with his. This song could've been great, but because of the generic screaming and mosh pit guitar riffs that dominate all rap-rock records these days, it becomes a tragic loss.
Same thing happens with After Me. Come on guys, keep it melodic for a whole song. The over-reliance on power chords and screaming honestly p*sses me off because without it happening nearly every song, I could probably enjoy this record a lot more.
Greater Than/Less Than begins gentle, with Scott's voice sounding tortured and depressed, yet in a way that won't drive you nuts because you've heard it all before. This song reminds me a LOT of great Alice in Chains songs, and THIS is what the whole album should have been like. We can only hope there are more songs like this from this band in the future.
Lackluster is exactly that. I liked it better when Sevendust did this song and called it Terminator. Faultline falls into the same trap. Where is that riff on the transition from verse to verse on the rest of the song, not to mention the rest of the album? The lack of creativity of guitarists Wayne Swinny and Chris D'abaldo annoys me almost as much as the drumming.
Hollywood. Ahhhhh, this song is TOTAL 80s. This is the classic 80s power ballad redone a bit for 2001. The ringing guitar tone, the clarity of Scott's voice, the simple as hell backbeat. God, it's like it's 1988 and I'm listening to Warrant do Heaven.
Doperide is the classic throw away track. This guitar riff sounds even more similar to Superstar than Musta Been Wrong did. This reminds me of awful Limp Bizkit. Classic pit guitar riff on the chorus. What I mean when I say that is is that it's the perfect riff to have the pit just pogo to while it'e being performed live.
My Goodbyes starts out very mellow, very melodic. Drums understated (in fact, this is the best drumming on the record, sometimes less IS more), I'm not sure what the opening reminds me of. Scott gets to show off his voice. Power chords are still there and they are overbearing here, just as they are on the whole album. However, considering the other songs on the album, this song isn't so bad.
THE POSITIVES:
When this band does rap/rock, they are successful more often than not. Considering the abundance of acts in this genre, and how poor most of them are, that's an impressive feat. Scott has a great voice when he chooses to use it, and when he's not constrained by the other members in the band. 3 or 4 of these songs are excellent songs with some excellent riffs and lyrics.
THE NEGATIVES:
The drummer should be fired now. The guitarists should listen to other rock bands and find out that power chords are more effective when they aren't used so often. Scott, while he has decent (and occasionally excellent) lyrics, needs to work on writing songs that showcase his powerful voice and obvious vocal range. There's no reason he can't be the next Chris Cornell. The songs sound very similar to each other and to stuff that has been put out in the last 3-4 years by other metal bands.
Every Six Seconds is an ok CD, and if you can find it for $6.99, I think it's a decent enough purchase for you to try out. If you don't like it, at least you only paid half what you usually do on a CD.
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